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well thank you that's it thank you for making this yeah man I appreciate [Music] that all right Luke comes I love that you're here um taking some time out as well from from touring all over the world and and playing these enormous
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shows we're going to spend a long time hopefully talking about Fathers and Sons and diving into the you know the the emotion and purpose of this record but let's just talk about the road right now I mean it's beautiful we're getting new
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music most people don't get a chance to release a new album while they're out there committing to Performance y so how are the shows going how's it feeling they're great man I mean they're huge it's it's hard to believe every night
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you know um but man they've been awesome you know it's been it's been a heck of a year you know um never thought I'd be doing stadium shows definitely not double stadium shows yeah multiples bro it's incredible it's really great man
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how's the preparation different for you from some of the shows you've done in arenas or even clubs I mean it's not it's not crazy different to be honest you know it's just there's just more people right um obviously the stage is
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bigger so there's logistically there's a thousand different things that are different right and so I mean all the work that is different is my team you know what I mean like my team work so much harder to to put these on and make
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sure they happen um obviously we have different openers on Friday than we do on Saturday so that's a that's a unique challenge for everybody um but man you know I I I just don't want to I don't want to sit here and tell you man I do
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all this or I do all that man like my team makes my life so easy dude you know and I think that's you know the thing that people a lot of people don't realize in music is that the real the real superheroes man are the people behind the scenes you know what I mean
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like your favorite artist is not out climbing the rigging and hanging lights they ain't up until 6 in they ain't up till 6:00 in the morning taking the stage down for the next you know the day after day after they're not you know we
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got guys that you know if we're out if the tour is six or seven months you know you know every weekend I'm flying home and I'm seeing my kids I'm hanging out like there's guys that are out that whole time you know what I mean so those
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are the people that really that really you know put the miles on and you know that's where the rubber meets the road is the crew folks you know so I mean for them it's a huge challenge you know I'm eternally grateful for that because I
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get to go out and have a blast every night and have fun and um yeah man it's it's awesome you're right man you know you provideed really valuable purpose to two very important parts of the experience which are the people that put
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the show on and the people that spend the money to see it and somewhere in the middle on that stage you stand and your job is to sing these songs um when you walk out on that stage and you see how many people are out there can you is
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there is there any way you can describe that feeling even just for a split second what it feels like yeah it's it's always um a bit overwhelming I think you know um it does you know you you know human being are incredible right they
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can almost adapt to any situation so um it becomes you know it's becomes what you do you know what I mean like if you had only ever played in bars and you walked out there it'd be like I mean it would just be like crushingly
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overwhelming I could imagine to some extent um but you know we've really worked up over the years to that to that point you know so we've you we've played these huge festivals you know we've had on stage coach and we've done all these
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massive shows over the years so in some ways it's not a huge it's not a huge influx of adrenaline or dopamine or whatever cuz you've slowly increased your ability to absorb you're a frog in a pot of boiling water my friend and it
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is hot in that Stadium right now it's it's good man it is cool dude it really is it's I mean you know you couldn't you can't buy that feeling you know what I mean coming out there and yeah you know it's it's in some ways every night is a
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culmination of like your whole you know it's your life's work really yeah it is no you're right it's a it's a point in the road that you you don't realize you that you're even on it half the time until you arrive at it and then you look
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back and of course it all makes total sense and these songs they are the stops in the road that everybody wants to go back to it's like we want to go and hear that Luke sing that song CU that Luke still exists he's singing that song
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three years ago right there's many lukees in the every night in these stadiums to show up and you know I think it's it's really interesting as well to sort of go back and relive these experiences as the writer and the performer and the and the and the creator of of these songs to go back and and almost take a look at that photo in an i photo that that Polaroid again and watch everyone's experiences of that song Come to Life must be kind of
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amazing it is yeah cuz there's so many different like you said man there's so many different versions yeah there's so many areas of my life that you know I'm singing about or have written about or you know there's certain songs that
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invoke different memories for me to different times of my life and yeah you do get to go through I was Hamed when I wrote that song for sure I mean there's a couple of those floating around for sure but it's it's cool man you know
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like I have you know one of you know she got the best of me you know that's was my fifth or fifth or sixth number one song and I wrote that when I was still in college you know so I wasn't even living in Nashville yet when I wrote
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that song so it's crazy for that to have gone from you think about writing it and then the process of oh we you know we should revisit it we should revisit that song and re-record it and who was that guy in college writing that song I mean
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if you could take a look from from a from an elevated perspective through the window of yourself in your dorm or your your lodging or housing wherever you are writing that song who are you man I was just a kid trying to figure it out you
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know trying to figure out how to do the music thing how to make that my life I was obsessed you know with it at that time you know just constantly trying to gain forward momentum continue moving in what I thought was the right direction I
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was just eat up with it I mean that was my whole Focus that was my whole life you know I didn't have a girlfriend I have kids I didn't have anything going on at that time just trying to get better just trying to get better just
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just playing shows as many shows as I could book as many songs as I could write as many you know songs I could learn on the guitar to make the show better and did you know when you wrote that one like all right this is a step
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up I didn't I didn't really you know I it's funny hurricane was the same way best of me was the same way like I liked him enough to where I was you know I recorded him but I wasn't like this is the thing this is the song that I think
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will be great off this group of songs I mean those were those weren't the picks both of those well not not hurricane but Reigns came almost like EP I made in college my second one there I made two three song EPS in college and Reigns was
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on the second one and I always would name the EP after the song that I thought would be the Smasher the best song on the thing and both times I did was wrong you know so it's like I learned listen it was it was like you
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know just record a group of songs that you love let the people decide and don't try to pick what you think the song that people are going to react to the most is because they're going to choose for you how would you know that's the thing if
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you're proud of it that's all you can be yeah but the the cool part about that was too is like at that time it was a valuable lesson especially there was a lot of luck involved too because streaming wasn't the thing at that time
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I mean this is only I mean 10 years ago 11 years ago maybe most and so the music industry has changed a lot in that amount of time so my career has taken off through all that change this big era of change that we have and so now you
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have a gauge and you almost have an instantaneous metric of what's the song people like you can find that out in 12 hours your record comes out 12 hours later you know what song people are coming back to and listening more than
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the other ones at that time you didn't know because you put it out and you're you know you're EP goes up for sale and they just buy the whole thing and then you don't know but now you do get that kind of I feel like you got the best of
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both Wills I'll tell you why because I feel like if you if you'd had access to that information and being someone who's who's you're a curious human you're a studious human I just want to say to everybody watching and listening to this
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cuz I've gotten to know Luke you know over over time and and he's a buddy I know this about him like he come like you are a relatable human being a great hang but you also deeply into your man yeah I I care I care a lot about what I
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do and you know I I want everything I do to you know be the best version of what it can be you know and um that's important to me you know because I'm essentially I'm you know I'm writing songs that I love and I do that because
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I love music and I love to do it but I also am aware now that like I'm I'm making something that I my job it requires someone to buy that thing from me right or purchase something from me there's a transaction there it's a trade and I would feel horrible about myself
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or what I do if I felt like I was putting out something that wasn't the best that it could be but but this is my that's very good point and it takes me back to what my initial comparison was why I think it's the best of both who
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because now you get to do that you get to make the most of making people happy yeah but in the beginning if you had access to all that kind of data driven and all those all those metrics right you you you might have been swerved off
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your path and not you know there's Instinct and diligence and I think you need to start with Instinct don't you yeah yeah I I think for sure you know you just go I love this I I you know and that's all I ever wanted to do was I the
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beginning was making stuff that I felt like I wasn't hearing that was my mindset is well why am I not hearing this thing on the radio or why why is nobody doing this or why did this stop happening you know and so I was trying
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to in my mind fill in those gaps that I didn't think were there or the thing that me as a listener cuz at that time right I'm one foot in one foot out I'm half fan who's not in the music business at all I'm trying to find a way to
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contribute and I'm half guy that wants to be in it right so I'm really studying at that time what why is this guy's thing work or what does this guy do that this gal doesn't do and why did did that not work and why did this work so I
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started thinking all and not from a business sense just musically speaking yeah yeah yeah how does this work why is this resonating and why isn't this resonating in fact I think if you're not doing that then you're absolutely
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ignoring the essential part of the pathway yeah for sure and it's important part of you you have to be aware of the climate that you ain't going to be a chef and walk in and just be like I don't really care how the oven Works
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mate that's your job you know I just come up with the idea right I'm just yeah yeah but you also want to like the food that you're putting out right of the proverbial kitchen but you also really need other people to like the food yes right love food analogies
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they're so Universal right well it's like you can't go in and go this is the best food that anyone will ever taste it's my favorite food and it's everyone else's fault that they don't like it they that's not how it works and yet
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this album this album is a beautiful piece of china soul food this album here that's good soul food for sure that's good I think I just think man you've created a beautiful and and and wonderful gift as I said before and and it's and you know why I know
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it's a gift because it's plural it's not father and son it's not just about you and your relationship with your children or you and your relationship with your dad it's about All Fathers and All Sons that's why I'd imagine that was a very
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deliberate decision yeah for sure um it was because there's a there's a few different perspectives on there right I didn't want it to all just be it's all happiness it's all good it's all you know it's just one love letter to one
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group of people yeah right it's just you know there's so many different experiences that people have as a child or as a parent or as a grandparent or whatever it's like I want there to to be a little bit of a taste of all of that
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on the on the record you know cuz I know that I think sometimes selfishly I'm like man everybody must feel this way right but I have friends that come from divorced homes I have friends that you know didn't have a dad around there are
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those experiences right you know so um it would be kind of shortsighted I think to have just made it you know for you for you to be able to write a song effectively and with real value from your own experience as a father to some
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degree we I think in this conversation with some Grace we have to kind of take a look at your EXP experience as a child and what it was like um having a father and what and what your relationship was like with your father um obviously it
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means a lot to you um is that him on the cover yeah it is yeah amazing so so in a way we've got to trace it back to that to to the roots of of your of your experience so that we can you can trace it up to the point of what you're adding
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to your children's life right how was it when you how was your experience as a kid it was good man I I was an only child right so obviously that comes with its own things right that's its own kind of separate deal so um my parents both
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worked hard um you know I would say me and my dad weren't like buddies you know what I mean like cuz he was just working a lot cuz he worked a lot and we had you know we had we lived on four acres you outside of town and so um you know on
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the weekends he was mowing and fixing the car like we didn't have a lot of money so it was like he worked 50 hours a week and then when he got home his time off was like working on the house parents right because you can't really we
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couldn't really afford you know if something broke like the best option is to fix it and if you exhaust that resource then it's well I guess we got to pay some money to fix it you know what I mean um so it wasn't you know
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there wasn't a a ton of like you know throwing the baseball in the front yard you know what I mean um and that's not because he didn't want to it was because he was doing what he thought was the best version of what I needed right
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which is a washing machine that works so that my clothes are clean you know it's picking up a you know extra going up to the bank on Saturday and fixing their air conditioner because he would get paid overtime to do that and then we
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could fix the car's radiator so my mom could take me to school or what you know what I mean it was like so you realize as a kid you're going your experience with that as a child is well my dad's not around right so you got the song and
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the record all I ever do is leave right which is like well Dad all he does is go and work he doesn't care about he doesn't want to spend time with me he doesn't want to do this with as a child that is your understanding of what's
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going on and then when I became a dad you're realizing well I go out and do all this stuff so my kids can have a better it's a no- win situation right so that you know was his version of that you know he was showing me Love by going
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out that's why I love the fact that it's all I have a was leave like it's really C I mean obviously it's clever songw writing luk at you but it's really really clever's almost too too clinical a word it's the nuances are beautiful
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across this like it's not all you right ever do is leave it's like all right I recognize that this is the the reality of the situation but it also needs to be on the record as to what the real the reason why sure it's right you and
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that's the thing is I think that's the cool thing about the about the record that I love so much is it it there are so many different once I had kids I realized it made me realize so many things about growing up and about my
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parents you know my mom and my dad you know and so it was like you need to realize you know as you're the process of evolving as a person is you realize that not every feeling that you had or not everything that you thought
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was going on is necessarily the truth right in some ways wait wait wait wait wait yeah we got one in early we got a truth bomb in early that's a real observation right there cuz we redefine the truth as we get AO all the time and
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it's and then you you realize you know decisions that you know and it's so it's hard right because you might have gone you might have held some sort of grudge against your dad or your or your parents for not being around and then and guess
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what that becomes part of your identity and you carried around with you for 25 years right and it's crazy man it's like there's there's not you know having kids for me was a huge a perspective change on everything you know and you hear all
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these lame cliches about oh man it sure goes fast and all you know and you're like that a a cliche that's factual my kid just graduated high school can I tell you something it goes by real fast yeah and that's what I that's what you
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learn that's what I learned having the kids is all of those things all of those just redundant cliche things people say them because they're true well you have you have a choice when you become a parent I think and that is um you have a
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choice to either um sit there and try to avoid and ignore the lessons that are laid out before you or have the courage to be able to do some self-work have some self-awareness heal some of those things and and allow some real growth
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it's it's pretty black and white it's pretty simple to choice you get to make for sure and it's it's crazy man I've learned that you know over time you know I've this record for me is I was when I came up with the concept to do it yeah
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where were you what was going on here's how it happened so I had had you know one or two songs going that were um about my kids you know and this was during the last album cycle or when is this yeah so this is probably right
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after my last record came out I had one song about my first son on on the last record that kind of I was just getting into that phase when that record was being finished up so one song snuck on there and there was a big gap of no shows in
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raising the kid and then all of a sudden we're having another kid and we're on tour and it's like life happened really fast for us you know that change happened really quickly and so then I realized well now I've written two more or two or three more songs about now
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that I've got a second son and my first one's growing up a little bit and about that and I go man like I was kind of bummed because I'm like you can only really have one dad song on a record right like that's what I was thinking to
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myself is like you know if I put out a good say I put out a 16 song record and five or six of them are dad on people like what it's like we get it like we get it okay like you like being a dad great blame stop we get it and so I it's
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the songwriting equivalent of going to a barbecue and and just pulling your phone out and constantly showing pictures of your kids after a while even your best friends like they're like yeah dude we have kids too great how about some
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chicken it's like someone else's fantasy football team you just don't care you care so much about your lineup and you didn't even know who you're playing against you're just like whatever yeah but and so I but so I realized I went
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well you know what I'll do I'll take these three or four songs and I'll make an EP out of them and I'll just surprise drop it on Father's Day no build up no press no anything so I started telling my songwriting buddies that's what I'm
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going to do I'm going to I've got these couple songs I'm going to go just record them live it'll be a quick you know half day thing we'll get them done and then that'll that'll get it out of my system right and so once my buddies heard that they were like man you should hear this song I started working on and then I stumbled upon some songs that I had been listening to for years that were never cut that I had always been a fan of and
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I go man if I ever had kids I would I would cut that song but I didn't have kids at the time when I heard those and so then all of a sudden I'm going well gosh man should I just make a whole record of this thing and I'll surprise drop it and
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just it'll be what it is it'll just live on its own and do whatever it's going to do um and then once I have 12 Songs in front of me that I'm like man these are all really great I'm really proud of these nothing gets cut right and I'm
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like once the album finished once we got it done and we had it recorded you know sit down listen to it I get the I get the board mixes back on it which are pretty pretty close to done cuz we recorded it live I was playing it for
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once I got it all back I was sitting in the green room with my band after a show early on in this tour and you know my my buddies are out my manager's out my business manager Out friends are out and the band's in there and I was like man I
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got these board tapes back on the new record do you guys want to listen to them and they like yeah this is post show and so we're having a couple drinks sitting in there and I put it on and it was just like we all sat there
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and listened to it and it just dawned on me like as I watched my bandmates who all come from really different backgrounds and different places and different experiences with their dads and different relationships as as fathers and as sons and as kids and I
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was like everyone was like dude you know we came to the kind of group conclusion it's like dude this is way too good to just put out and not give it a real shot for people to hear it and not that people wouldn't have heard it but to
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give it to put the work in to to give it the chance that it that we feel like it deserves they was getting the phrase get it out of my system off the table yeah that phrase of like get it done because I remember thinking like dude nobody's
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going to Care like people want to hear you know the fun stuff the beer drinking stuff you know you get lost in that sometimes in the music business again it comes back to the analytics especially when there's 80,000 people doing just
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that right and you're like how do you just stream how do you get your streaming numbers up and how do you do this and everybody's so concerned with that and I'm like I don't want to get lost in that but then at the same time
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I'm like well I don't want to not try to be gr and continue to be gr and um just it just became obvious that this is what we need to do oh it's it's dude I mean not only does it work on a personal level for you and for the people who
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relate to it of which I mean billions of people are going to relate to this album because you know we''ve all been children have children and will forever be it's not a topic you know you're not singing about a landline tele got legs
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bro then if you made an album about fixing cars and cooking food you'd have the three giv of Life covered I'm just saying at some point over the next 40 years you cover those other two Christmas is good for the rest of the
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time absolutely maybe do a Christmas album that's the fourth there you go have you done a Christmas album no oh a very Combs Christmas I don't know if I can do it I don't know if I can do it you say that people have been saying it
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for a long time and that that I've been more more in my mind and more open to it than ever and it's only because of having kids yeah because you just did once I had the kids I was like okay they like Christmas you can't play Fathers
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and Sons to your kids at Christmas you got to play Christmas album to your kids at Christmas right I'm saying tana and Sons no but is the record godamn Santa and Son Santa and Sons write a whole album about from Santa's point of view of being a father
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of being a father to the El right of course right yeah I'm trying to think of song Concepts now and there's so many good ones it's just like and there's something about like the other 364 days of the year yeah oh yeah it's like
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there's something about like I'm only away one day of the year but I'm your dad 364 days of the year yep I mean I'm watching a master at work right now tring to figure out I know we'll come back to it we'll come back no it's
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perfect it works it works in terms of what you like you were talking about it's it's going to be a universal success over a period of time because it's really relatable but it's also I was trying to say also really works for
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your growth when even maybe you didn't realize it because by pumping the brakes on what people want and showing them something that is really deep and important to you it almost reminds people what it was like to meet you for the first time I haven't
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really thought about it from that perspective until you just said that which is which is it when I was telling you the story earlier about writing stuff that I wanted to hear yeah you know you just did it again it right it feels very much like that same thing it that's what your band's feeling too they're like we play these hits every night but man we're hearing you you it just just doing getting back to what you love and what really speaks
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to you you know what I mean like you know you can't you can't lose a race that nobody else is in right like I always tell people you know I always think you know the comparison game I've watched so many people lose to that mindset of well this
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guy's doing this or this guy or this gal did this thing why didn't I do that or why didn't I get that and you know I think of Music people get lost in you know well I want to break this record and I want to do this and I want to do
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that and that just removes all the everything out of it the passion is all gone at that point if you're chasing you know if you're chasing being the greatest is not a thing it it isn't a thing and there's no goal in that in M
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musically speaking to be you know I have no desire to be the best guy ever or the most this or the most that you know I I broke a lot of Records when I came out dude and they're all gone already they've already all been smashed out
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dude and it's always going to happen if that's your if that's your intention he or she will always disappoint you yes I mean for sure you know it's like you got to you got to just stay in your lane and do your thing um because you know I've I
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you know I've been guilty of that too as as everyone in the music business has is man well this guy come along and why does this work for him or why did she get to play that thing and I didn't get to play it and yeah I just have let all
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that stuff go man I let it go early on you know yeah I feel like they've never been bugged by that and in fact we've had offer R conversations which will stay off their Reco where we've sort of laughed about the fact that it's like
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man I mean I didn't even know how to play that game I would even know to those people I wouldn't even know whaty to go to try fit into whatever convers they're having to even understand how that's a value to me or or to them
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because there's nowhere to go from from there even if you reach the goal once you reach the goal there's nowhere to go but down just going to disappoint you right she'll always disappoint if the goal is to I always think you know we
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got into this and me and my my buddies have these philosophical conversations on the road is like what like when what like how could we possibly be doing anything that's not fun we got into this whatever version of the music business is meant for you that
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your dream is because we didn't want to be miserable and unhappy correct and then I see so many people I was miserable and unhappy right and I see so many people end up in the same place and I go how did the only thing that brought
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you happiness which was music and then now you're involved with it and somehow We've Ended back up at unhappy town like all we travel the world and play music and make money and it's awesome and yeah dude sometimes things
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are hard or whatever but like think about where you would be if you didn't achieve your dreams right like I got buddies that bust up concrete dude like it's like that's I could be doing that sure you know what I mean and so I'm never and I'm constantly working on myself to to pull myself out of ruts whenever I get in them like I try to do that I try to be present and and do those things as they happen and I'm lucky to have great people around me
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that keep me really grounded that don't ever let me they don't buy into any narrative like when we're out on the road man like the people that are closest to me do not give me a lot of slack like they're not like dude you're
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great every idea is great you're good yeah absolutely that's the right idea like people challenge me on things and that's to me so important to continually um be growing and being better but you make yourself available for that I feel like the first time we
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ever really got a hang in you know we we we hung out for a long time we were out for like eight hours I think in the end and and by the end of it we were having great discourse about things that we liked and didn't like and pushing back
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you were available to that conversation and I've always liked that about you yeah we went to the Super Bowl together that was cool was remember that was a great that was sick that was a great day remember yeah you know there was one
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significant sacrifice to all of this through the good times and the fun there was and i' I experienc anyone who follows their dreams and paths and it takes them further away from where they come from and what is really truly
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important at the end of all of this which is the relationships and memories with the people that we love the biggest sacrifice is front door famous the biggest sacrifice opens the album It's the moment when you know that by fulfilling your dreams much like your
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dad but for different reasons your dad was keeping the lights on you're doing it a different way that's growth that's Evolution you get to actually thanks to the hard work your parents going to do something that you truly love right and
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they get to bask in that and help and and feel that love and that success and that energy it's beautiful closes the loop on the work in a strange way but you are now in a situation where you have to leave and you're lucky that you
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can take family with if you need to but that that song is really moving and Powerful because I know what it's like when you come home and the joy is there but you know it's sure lived cuz the sadness is just around the corner yeah
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for sure and it was such a I'll never forget the craziest day probably in my life close to it you know one of the best and one of the worst days in my life at the same time was it's interestingly enough and it's still been
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it's so hard to wrap my mind around it just if you really think about it but so it's August 16th I wake up in the morning um I'm in Sydney Australia in a hotel room and we're on tour in Australia and I woke up to this uh I probably woke up at around 8 8: a.m. or something like that Australia time and um I had a text from My Wife and it said it said it said I'm so sorry I I really tried to not have the baby while you're gone and um god dude it
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sucked it sucked cuz he was he was born on August 15th in the St States and it was I got to see him be born which was awesome he wasn't born yet but my wife went she text me on the way to the hospital and he was 2 and a half weeks
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early and I was supposed to be home and I wasn't and that was real hard man to do and um I haven't really told anybody that but I didn't cover that too much on this album because it's really hard yeah for me to deal with but yeah I
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understand yeah that was tough man those moment those moments in life it really was we do everything we do everything we can to control an environment in order to be all things at once yeah but life reminds us in moments like that that we actually
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can't control those things and yeah you know your some was going to come when was going to come yeah for sure he was ready and he was ready man and it was it was God it was a hard day but I was so lucky to you know I'm you know a lot of
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my closest friends um you know now work for me and so I had a really great support system you know I'm never on an island on the road because I have so many people that are so close to me and um you know two of my best best friends
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were out with me on on that trip and um my best friend from high school is my personal assistant and he was there he's a he's a father of two boys and um one of my best friends who's um I write songs with all the time was
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my guitar tech actually at that time um and he was there and he's got two kids and so you know I was able to be with them through that whole thing and um yeah it was wild dude it really was it was such a surreal thing you know have
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you and I really hope that you have yeah in fact it's not even a question like you have to be able to for to forgive yourself in that situation yeah I you know I'm in the moment very very challenging and I'm I'm blessed you know
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you know my I was going to be gone for almost a month so we had known obviously we didn't plan it that way right tour is already booked of course and look you know the hey by the way just quickly the amount of people I know who cut things
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fine to childbirth it's just it's how you have to do it like because you're working you're working not everyone can say I'm taking a month I'm just going to sit on and just wait just in case it just doesn't work like that yeah it
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doesn't and you know we knew there was a chance that he would that he would come that he would come early and so luckily my mother-in-law and uh was in she came up for the month while I was gone you know cuz obviously we have a one-year-old and my wife is you know
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essentially nine months pregnant at the time so thank goodness she was there my sister-in-law lives in Nashville as well so my wife had a really great support system with her for that experience which I'm very thankful for that made it
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a lot easier I had people with me everything went great you know no hiccups in the process bless her for for extending the grace to you which really was a generous gift to say look I tried yeah there there's nothing she can do
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such a sweet gesture but at the end of the day man I mean Nature's going to have its way oh for sure man and you know looking looking back on it man it's it's one of those stories that yeah it's a Define moment in my life for sure and
34:59
it speaks a lot to you know it's you know it sums up in a lot of ways you know the some of the bad parts of the music business right is the leaveing and you your schedule's crazy and you're traveling all over the place and you
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know it's not like you can I can drop everything I'm doing and fly 18 hours home well it was a powerful story and I'm I'm everyone who's listening and watching will be grateful that you shared it I think because um everyone in
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life is going to go through a moment where you feel like a disappointment in an environment that you can't actually control for sure there's nothing you could have done yeah I mean I'm just so I'm I'm just you know I think about I
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try I try to think about the positives of that you know obviously that everyone's happy and healthy is number one right number two really what you're lamenting is an experience for sure yes and you know and then you also the guilt
35:50
of not being there to help your wife and stuff through that um you know I carried I Carri that around for a while and she knows what's in your oh for sure and and you know you know I would do the same thing for her man and she knows that if
36:03
I was if the you know the tables were turn man like I would you know I would give her the same Grace that she gave me man she's never once made me feel bad about that never once you know and that's what I love about her man is she
36:15
you know she's we are a team oh I met her briefly in in Vegas and it was so great to finally meet her she's amazing dude she really is man and it must be one of those really amazing things to know that when you're out on the road
36:27
that's life that you're working kind of ultimately for like no disrespect to all of us we're all fans Luke but we know really that what's motivating you now is is to make your family proud and to and to bring the rewards home and to share
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the experiences and memories with them number one for sure number one right and it must be so amazing to to know even during those times on the road when when you know you come to the end of a run that that's waiting for you yeah oh my gosh it's a good side of front door famous it is it it really is man they're coming back um you know I got a month off after this weekend so I'm like yeah I'm chomping at the bit for that man just like spend the
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time at home um hang with the kids hang with the wife work on myself from Sofi to Loi baby nearly there I love it it's nearly there but I'm looking forward to the shows too man it's going to be fun dude you know what I mean it's like
37:16
great Stadium oh my gosh i' never been man huge gigantic I saw Metallica in there and it was just like holy sh I bet dude listen it gets deep pretty quick you know I think you get one yeah I'm going say it I think you get one real genuine shot at
37:36
writing your postumus message mhm before you leave this Earthly experience yeah cuz you can't do it again it's like you know hey son the first one I wrote you wasn't quite so good I've learned a few things since then it's a little
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disingenuine having another stab at it but you get to do it at a in your life where you feel you have you're on I think you're walking the line between what you've experienced and what's to come with no guarantees on the on the
38:06
right side of that yeah so how was that writing or being a part of the experience of performing in case I ain't around was that one of yours was that yeah that's one of mine had to be and I had that idea um we go I do a deer
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hunting trip every year in Mississippi and January and um I get to go down there with some of my best buddies and we spend a week you know doing stuff we love together and um you know I you know it's funny to think of you know I think
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of those times um on those trips man I I cherish them because I think man you know now that we've all got kids or our kids are you know they're not getting older but they're they're growing every day right um and as they you know the
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next two or three years may be all we have left of that trip as as buddies right because then we'll be doing that trip as dad's right and so um we went down and um can't shoot you in the leg anymore bro I'm sorry to do it to you I
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know you got a couple of got a couple of wounds in there I'm sorry I can't do it then we got down there and we're sitting on the porch um um and you know I had that title I was like you know I thought I was like man I just want to you know something
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for my kids to to hold on to is is you know because you don't know you know you just don't know you know what I mean and I'm like you know God forbid something were to happen really to any of us you know that we're writing that song and
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you know it's something that our kids could could come back to and just you know like you know if you've if you lost your you know if you were in the unfortunate situation of losing your you know parents grow when you were young
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right like you would give anything to have some thing that they said to you or something that they did for you or something that they wrote to you it's a really Brave gesture too because I think a lot of times as human beings we don't
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want to acknowledge the truth about life which is it is unknown and finite yeah we just kind of want to go through with blinkers on like it's all gonna be fine until it's not and I think you know when you're an artist you take the time to
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actually say no I'm I'm gonna put pen to paper here and I'm going to put something down which really is like some lessons I've learned in my life and I and what I think is truly important toward living a fulfilling a fulfilling
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life yeah I think it's really Brave and it's tough man I mean it must have been times when you're writing it trying to figure out what are the important things here I've got x amount of time to write this and I want it to be essential
40:28
yeah it's funny we started out you know the beginning of that song is is all you know is all deer hunting stuff but it's like and we wanted to start it out with something that felt when we're writing it is like we didn't want to come in hot
40:40
with like he's a laundry list take care of your mom you know like really heavy or like really just heavy stuff off the off the jump right so we wanted to start out with like oh like things that we felt like you know our dads would say to
40:56
us or that we would say to our kids is like well make sure you you know when you crank the mower up you got to turn the you know you got to pump the clutch before you turn the key you know like Dad right like stuff your dad would say
41:08
was like well don't start that car without you know making sure you prime the engine for you cold in the morning out here going right you know what I mean like get to warm the car up before you get in it when it's cold out you
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know like that almost kitchy like Dad like cliche stuff and then as the second verse unfolds it's more like you're ready by the way if you're teenager your kid that cuz I wanted to like tell you tell you to off when you telling me
41:30
that now you were like don't tell me how to do anything don't tell me how to don't tell me how to live you know what I mean I'll make my own mistakes you know what I mean let me make my own mistakes um but that's that's how that
41:40
song kind of kind of came to be and you know I I think when we at on Inception of that idea it was like man this is going to be this really heavy thing and I think by the time you get to the end of it it it does touch on some of those
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things like make sure that you you know make sure that you spend time with with the family and you know call your brother if you're you know if you're tough and you if you're having a tough day and and all these different things
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that we eventually get to but at the beginning it is very light right and that that was intentional for sure must be so so much fun to be able to conceptualize something that you know is an emotion or a feeling or a sentiment
42:20
that you're striving for yeah and to take a step back when you capture it when you know you've got that perfect turn around and at the end of the chorus here it comes I'm wrapping it up and it is just like such a craft it must be so
42:35
great just to be able to sit back at the end of the day and just go or a session just go we brought that to life I kind of got it out of me yeah yeah it is and I my favorite part about it too is a lot of you know 99% of the songs that I
42:48
write are written with you know people who I consider really close friends now and we're all of similar age we're all within 10 years of each other on either side um so I would say from you know we're from 29 to 40 you know there's a
43:04
few outliers there you know um but so we're all in the kind of the similar phase of life so writing this record it was like everybody was flush with ideas everybody was flushed with their own version of being a parent or being a
43:20
child or losing a parent or um so it was really great to one you know write all these things that you know we'll make this awesome record which is you know that's the goal but then everybody gets to have a song that they wrote for their
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kids or a song that they yeah like Take Me Out to the Ball Game that's that's almost a character study to some degree for you isn't it for sure it is and um you two two buddies of mine uh one of one of who's one of my best friends in
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the world um brought me that song that was the last song uh that made it on the recording and we finished that he played it for me we on turkey hunting trip in Alabama and he played it for me on the porch after we were out one morning and he said man I got this kind of you know verse chusy idea with this other songwriter guy I know and we're not super close but they they had Britten this together and I said man said this thing's incredible
44:18
dude you know so we sat down on the porch and we started tinkering with it and we I don't know we sat there for two three hours trying to get it perfect and we did I feel like we we got it as close as we could get it to where we wanted it
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and I recorded it the next day so it was like I mean we were on the you know the 11th Hour you know um just right at the end and I was like this is just the perfect song to round this thing out I just called to say I miss you and making
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sure you know that that alone is an incredibly powerful TW line statement yeah I mean that in its Simplicity sums up the the key key Line near is making sure you know that yeah because we say things all the time or not as the case
45:04
may be yeah but we really make sure that that message gets across I think my favorite line in that song and I you know I try not to get too song rer nerdy um I mean hello you walked in this room you must have known what you were
45:17
signing up for bro but my favorite is in the um it's I believe it's the end of the second verse um but it says I just want to see you and if you come back you don't have to and it's almost the kid saying hey man like if you just come
45:34
back like you don't even have to go to the baseball game with me yeah yeah like I'm not really asking for that like yeah it because I think in the in the when I'm thinking of the the kid in that song I'm thinking of him going well maybe he
45:48
doesn't maybe my dad doesn't want to come back because he thinks that he has to take me to the so it's it's from a very the the child in the song is obviously very young right like they're not understanding fully what's going on
46:01
so in their mind they're going well maybe my dad doesn't come back cuz he doesn't want to take me to the baseball game well it's a very sacrificial it's a very it's a very sacrificial position to be put into as a child whether your
46:12
parents mean to or not because there is nothing you're almost not unwilling to do right to try to reconnect the family right that's where all this desperation is creeping in this idea of like I'm so sorry I was bad and if it was my fault
46:26
I'll do anything I can and it's it's I mean you know you've been very open and very personal in this conversation I mean I have no problem doing that point in my life I mean it's we're in conversation say an interview bro I mean
46:38
I I was there I was the guy who was like was it me right I mean I was probably 10 when things started going bad and that's a pretty important moment in someone's life their identity is forming and they're trying to figure out who they
46:48
are as a person and and a big part of what really attached itself to me was like you know I am part of a problematic home environment so I must have paid I'm for some it's on me some exent for sure me and my brother felt that for
47:03
sure yeah and it's crazy to think you know the perspective of that song too is that the the child is so young and they are having such um almost un uncomplex thoughts of how the situation unfolds but at the same time you're able to at that age overanalyze
47:22
everything as well because you're also able to go well I must be the problem well you could be because your curiosity is through the roof it's just curious about all the wrong things it's just so interesting man like you know you're
47:34
when you think back to being young man the things that you overthought or the things that you you believe are just you know bro it it it gets so deeply rooted into the way that you're wide and the way that you think and move and how you
47:45
conduct your relationships and your work and approach your life and there's positive things to that you know you throw a little bit of OCD in there it's called ambition what it's called as a broken family and OCD it's like I'm
47:55
going to do it all and it's great it's fat powerful fuel but man at some point you got to sit down with someone who understands and you got to really really dive into it you know you have that in songwriting you get to address your
48:08
feelings and emotions really clearly and regularly through songwriting you know have there been other ways that you've been able to approach that to keep a clear slate how do you do you see a future if not now where therapy can help
48:19
you understand things better oh gosh yeah um gosh I just met somebody last week man you know what I mean it's like I'm a fan by the way yeah it's it's it's a it's it's vastly important you know I mean you know mental health has played a
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huge part in my life for a long long time I mean since I was 11 or 12 years old um it's been crazy you know um and you know and that's the thing is I I wonder you know when when did it or why did it become weird to talk about right
48:52
you know what I mean it's like we're at this point now I think where I I think anyone should realize that there is no one that doesn't have some something to unpack something going on yeah right you may not have some severe you know DSM for disorder but you've got
49:12
something some version of something somewhere going on I feel I feel the conversation is in the right place right now and I and I what I where I really wanted to go now is therapy for all what I really want is is for it to not
49:21
necessarily be about means as much as it is right because it because it is ultimately it's a very you know it's expensive and and that's because people who do it are very good and they have to go through enormous amount of training
49:31
and as we know the way capitalist infrastructure works the more work you put into something the more you you know effort you put into at the end of the day you know you're hoping that's going to lead to some kind of strong you know
49:40
Financial reward but there's got to be an environment and I think going forward where we're able to and there there is great great places out there and great systems out there that work but it would be good if we can continue to do that
49:51
because I do think that really in the same way we encourage people to exercise their bodies man they got to exercise the mind you got to clear that out oh for sure man it because it it gets built up in there man yeah we're finite
50:02
we're finite creatures yep we are finite creatures like you you know when your CPU is maxed out and in the red I definitely do yeah definitely me too I mean it's happening right now just talking to you is tipping me over the edge by
50:18
Franklin y I love you man I really do dude I mean I I you know I'm a fan and I think as a writer and as a performer you are one of none bro I I think your success is is a Justified and righteous response to the efforts and that you put
50:34
in to nurturing your own abilities thank you I appreciate that I appreciate that but as a person man you know you show up and you and you release these records you take these things you're unafraid and I know that fear is is not not a
50:45
part of your life oh yeah for sure I know it is but I but it also somehow you make decisions in an unafraid way yes definitely you know I I you know you know I just I don't ever want to be in the routine of sameness you know I think
51:03
like I I do crave especially you know from from a musical standpoint is like I you know I don't ever want to evolve to the point where I'm just completely not even close to where I was when I started right like I still want to have to be rooted in that in that existence one foot in one foot out God that in itself is almost a fear what if one day I wake up and find myself very far away from who I was in the beginning for sure man and I you know it
51:31
it it takes a lot of conscious effort to to maintain that but I mean even from a musical standpoint is I want to continue to grow and evolve and and challenge myself and and make music that I love and make music that excites me to make
51:44
and to sing you know and and sing every night for the rest of forever um but I also don't but I also want to you know I do have an obligation to my fans right you know what I mean if I made a you know a dance record next year people
52:01
would be like okay what's what is this I love it wait but but I think there's so many you know there's there's you know tomorrow night 50,000 people in there that they want to hear me do when it rains it pours you know what I mean like I'm not
52:19
going to not do that you know what I mean cuz that's what you you walked in a Nike store and there wasn't any tenis shoes in there what's going on here where's the tennis shoes like we like the where's the Jordans at you know what
52:32
I mean like we want those so it's like you still have to you can still do both right you can do both you do you do um you know I love so much of this album the whole thing start to finish such a beautiful break you know I love hunting
52:45
by myself I talked about that one um we talked a little about whoever you turn out whoever you whoever you turn out to be to be but I want to finish this conversation this time around luk by asking you about the one song um
52:57
on this album that you think that that really when you finished it when you listen back to those to those board mixes and you were like and you were like all right you know like you know yeah this one is really hitting me gosh if I had to just keep one song
53:15
you're saying essentially in some ways guess I guess I think it would man it would be hard to beat whoever you turn out to be it would really be hard to beat that so let's finish there cuz you know I love that song and it's hard to
53:26
it's a song I didn't write you know what I mean so but I love that though because you get to inhabit it yeah and I I remember I'll never forget listening to it man I had woken up early one morning as at home um you know kids are up at
53:39
700 um me and the wife are usually up a little bit before that to try to have a coffee in peace for 20 minutes or whatever I remember those days but that but that particular morning was I for whatever reason man I got up at 5: and
53:54
you know my last record get getting old was was getting old in some ways you know it's like it was time to do something else the dad thing hadn't fully manifested yet I had just gone in the studio and recorded a couple of
54:08
different things and was just tinkering with stuff and what's the next project look like and I was feeling kind of uninspired and kind of lost in where I want to go and what I want to do next and musically speaking at least um and
54:22
so I have this big file as you know as people send me songs and um you know I I I put I have a file and there it's like songs to listen to you know it's anything that my buddies have sent me anybody sent me and I don't listen to
54:35
them right when I get them I just file them in that folder and when I have time I go through and listen to them because when they're in the folder I don't know who sent them to me I don't know who's written them I don't know anything about
54:45
these songs just on the song s just know the title and I just listen to it and I take it in for what it is so there's no there's no bias to any of that decision making process and and that's intentional so I get up and open that folder up I go
54:59
God there's 90 songs in here you know it's like it's 5:00 I got my coffee I got two hours I'm like I'm ripping through as many of these as I can this morning because I just want to I want to hear some new stuff man I want to I want
55:13
to get inspired I want to I want to be like damn I wish I wrote that or I wish I could can I help finish that song Or you know and I get to this song it's halfway through the thing thing and I just floored me dude I mean I just
55:29
floored me and it gosh it got me so hard I was just like what a I mean what a message man and I thought I tried so hard to find any reason to to go this song isn't perfect the way it is selfishly yeah to go how can I make this song Better how what can
55:50
I add to this song how can I tinker with this song and make it better than it is and I came to the conclusion that there's no way this song is perfect to me it's written by two guys was written by red aens and Ben Dennis
56:05
and it was just like everything that I want my sons to know that I love them for who they are no matter what that looks like if you can sum up a song I think in two lines just two lines and you can get it and if you stripped everything
56:25
else away and say this is the song the song is um you know it might work out that you don't turn out anything like me but I'll love love you I love whoever you turn out to be right that's how you know yeah I mean if you just had that
56:40
one line it's that's over such an incredibly powerful sentiment yeah the fact that it rhymed bonus awesome awesome bonus for sure amazing bonus but I I remember thinking when I heard it and the thing that shuck me about it is
56:55
you know I wonder how many kids like that lives would be completely different if they heard their parents say that to them one time just one time and I wanted to I wanted to give that to my to my kids because I I wanted them to know that
57:13
that that I mean that when I say it man it's whatever happens man like I I'm going to be proud of you man like if you're the most regular guy on the planet or if you become the president or whatever it is man whatever that looks
57:28
like whatever your path is dude I'm going to be right behind you pushing you down the road in the direction that you want to go you know because I just think that's you know that's I'm not there to to to Chisel my kids into what I want them to be and I was really lucky man I think my perspective I was really lucky to have really supportive parents and parents that were really outside the box thinkers in a lot of ways um you know we I had a very
57:57
traditional upbringing with very open-minded non-traditional thinking parents like they were always very open to anything and they were like that gave me a lot of space to you know they I mean listen dude they were strict do your homework
58:13
clean your room like that stuff was there man like and that's something that my kids will have too but that my parents also said like dude man you want to do something you got it man whatever you want to do hell yeah you know and
58:27
that's kind of that that's the way I want my kids to I want I just want them to know forever that that's it just provided me with so much freedom to to know that I had I had this safety net of like that these people will be there to
58:44
support me regardless of the mistakes I make or the person that I am or the you know the places that I end up like it was such a great feeling to have as a child and so I want to to also afford my kids that same that same Freedom you know [Music]